Hint Fiction Contest IV Top 20

After much consideration and counsel with close friends -- one of whom is Ben White, the editor of Nanoism -- I now present to you the top 20 finalists of this year's Hint Fiction Contest. It's always tough narrowing down the best stories, and several stories came extremely close to making the final cut. In fact, I could have easily included a top 30. But a top 20 is much more reasonable, especially as I'm now going to open it up to you to vote for your favorites. Out of the 20 stories here, you can pick up to 3 stories. Tell your friends, family, whoever! Every vote counts.

Voting will remain open until the end of the month. Then the top 10 will be sent to Benjamin Percy to pick the winners. The poll box can be found at the bottom of this post (note: for some reason the poll box was not compatible with my current theme, so this rather boring layout is only temporary).

Now here are the top 20 Hint Fiction stories, in no particular order:

EDIT: The stories have been deleted.

The Waiting Begins

The open submission period to Hint Fiction Contest IV has ended and now the waiting begins. I hope to start going through the stories in the next several days, and if all goes well, a top 20 will be announced in another week or two.

Hint Fiction Contest IV

From now until the end of this month, submissions are open for this year's Hint Fiction contest, judged by Benjamin Percy. What is Hint Fiction? 

A story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story. Think of Hemingway’s apocryphal six-word story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” It doesn’t have a title, but those six words convey a punch. Not only that, they stand on their own. They’re not the first line of a story, or a random sentence plucked from a longer story.

About the judge: 

Benjamin Percy is the author of two novels, Red Moon and The Wilding, as well as two books of stories, Refresh, Refresh and The Language of Elk. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writers’ Award, the Plimpton Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics. His story “Impact” appeared in the Hint Fiction anthology.

Prizes: 

• 1st place $100, 2nd place $50, 3rd place $25.
• All winners and runners up will receive signed copies of the Hint Fiction anthology, as well as signed copies of my very short fiction collection Phantom Energy.
• Perera-Hussein Publishing House has generously donated copies of their Sri Lankan Hint Fiction anthology Short & Sweet to the winners and runners up as well.
• Finally, the 1st place winner will also have his or her Hint Fiction story animated by Dustin Grella, who has animated a few Hint Fiction stories in the past (here and here and here).

There is no entry fee.

Not sure what Hint Fiction is? It’s strongly recommended you check out the anthology, which is still available in paperback. Also, Norton has kindly lowered the price of the ebook for a limited time, so you can purchase it for just $2.99 on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.

You can submit up to two Hint Fiction stories using the form below (subscribers to my newsletter can submit up to three; directions on how to submit the third story can be found in the welcome email). After April 30th, a top 20 will be chosen and will be published online, where readers can vote for their favorites à la American Idol. Then from there a top 10 will be narrowed down, which will be sent to Benjamin Percy (please note that I hold veto power, so if a story I feel strongly about in the top 20 doesn’t make the top 10, I may include it anyway).

Stories should be no longer than 25 words. This does not include the title. If the story is longer than 25 words, it will be automatically disqualified.

Please note: Unless you're a newsletter subscriber, submit no more than two stories. If you submit more than two stories, you will be automatically disqualified.

Using one of my own Hint Fiction stories as an example, please format your stories like this:

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS

It was Fredrick Miller, not his murdered son Matthew, who was executed Monday night at Henshaw Prison.

Good luck!

Edit: Submission period over. Thanks to everyone who submitted.

New Hint Fiction Contest

It's been almost five years since my essay "Hint Fiction: When Flash Fiction Becomes Just Too Flashy" was first published at Flash Fiction Chronicles. Since then Hint Fiction has really taken on a life of its own. Besides the anthology published by W. W. Norton four years ago, there's been an art show, a film contest, and even recently an anthology of Sri Lankan Hint Fiction. There have been three contests in the past -- judged by Stewart O'Nan, James Frey, and Joyce Carol Oates -- and this year I thought it was time to host another contest. What is Hint Fiction? It's a story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story. Think of Hemingway's apocryphal six-word story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." It doesn't have a title, but those six words convey a punch. Not only that, they stand on their own. They're not the first line of a story, or a random sentence plucked from a longer story.

The reason I didn't host a contest the past two years is because the stories submitted in 2011 seemed rather ... formulaic. After all, there is only so much that can be done with a 25 word limit. Having said that, I have a faith that more can be done with the genre, that writers can think outside the box, so that's why I'm doing another contest.

This year's judge is the one and only Benjamin Percy. He is the author of two novels, Red Moon and The Wilding, as well as two books of stories, Refresh, Refresh and The Language of Elk. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writers' Award, the Plimpton Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics. His story "Impact" appeared in the Hint Fiction anthology.

The submission period will be from April 1 to April 30 at this website. You can submit up to two Hint Fiction stories (subscribers to my newsletter can submit up to three, those lucky sons of guns). After April 30th, a top 20 will be chosen and will be published online, where readers can vote for their favorites à la American Idol. Then from there a top 10 will be narrowed down, which will be sent to Benjamin Percy (please note that I hold veto power, so if a story I feel strongly about in the top 20 doesn't make the top 10, I may include it anyway).

The prizes are as follows:

• 1st place $100, 2nd place $50, 3rd place $25.
• All winners and runners up will receive signed copies of the Hint Fiction anthology, as well as signed copies of my very short fiction collection Phantom Energy.
• Perera-Hussein Publishing House has generously donated copies of their Sri Lankan Hint Fiction anthology Short & Sweet to the winners and runners up as well.
• Finally, the 1st place winner will also have his or her Hint Fiction story animated by Dustin Grella, who has animated a few Hint Fiction stories in the past (here and here and here).

There is no entry fee.

Still not sure what Hint Fiction is? It's strongly recommended you check out the anthology, which is still available in paperback. Also, Norton has kindly lowered the price of the ebook for a limited time, so you can purchase it for just $2.99 on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.

So check back here April 1st. In the meantime, have fun!

EDIT: The contest is currently open.

For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Written By Hemingway

So the big news yesterday was this story how, believe it or not, the famous six-word story was not, in fact, written by Ernest Hemingway. This comes a day after George Saunders, on The Colbert Report, talked about this famous bit of tiny literature. Am I surprised that Hemingway has been outed as not being the true author? Not at all. I mean, I basically said the same thing in my introduction to the Hint Fiction anthology two years ago:

Although Ernest Hemingway is credited for creating the first "six-word story," some believe the story of its creation is a myth. The truth is there is no written account of those six words anywhere. They are, as one Hemingway scholar puts it, apocryphal.

What surprises me, really, is that it took this long for someone to do the research to put this mystery to rest. From what my editor at Norton had told me, who heard it from a Hemingway scholar, the question of whether or not Hemingway truly wrote the story is one of the most frequently asked questions about the author. So it's a bit odd that, after all this time, someone just finally figured it out. Also, based on the article -- really, it's a good read, check it out -- it seems that a similar phrase regarding a baby carriage had been circulating for quite some time. From 1906, an advertisement in the newspaper:

For sale, baby carriage; never been used. Apply at this office.

So there's the chance that Hemingway happened to see this ad, then decided to turn it into a story. If that's the case, he basically plagiarized. Then again, there's a chance he never actually "told" the six-word story upon which he's been credited all this time. It is still, and probably will forever be, a myth.

I will say, though, as I've said before, I believe what has made this six-word story endure as long as it has is not only its simplistic greatness, but its association with Hemingway. If it had been written by Joe Schmo, maybe it would have faded away and made people care less about it. But Hemingway, being the master storyteller that he was, gave the six-word story much more credibility. Could I be wrong? Perhaps. But in some literary circles, what matters more is the name of the author, rather than the actual story.

Anyway, regardless who actually authored the story, those six words have inspired writers for many, many years, and in the end, I think that's what matters most.